Word: fitful
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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...will happen next (even though the P.R.C. has been defying the best guesses of pundits and academic specialists alike for decades) and an ability to provide easy-to-summarize answers to Big Questions. The most successful and widely reviewed tend to have theses spelled out in provocative titles that fit into ongoing point-counterpoint debates or give rise to new ones. When China Rules the World is a case in point. Its appearance immediately triggered an expected rebuttal from Hutton, and inspired Big China Articles (yes, there are lots of those too) for and against...
...takes an “institution” to get people at Harvard to even consider hanging out together. By this she meant that we tend toward things that have a label, that are officially stamped as worthwhile or at least excusable by the powers that be, that fit nicely onto our resumes and succinctly into sentences explaining what exactly we have done with our time on earth. She complained, for example, that no one would waste his or her time having a lengthy intellectual debate unless it was for a debate team or a class; that no one would...
...against “the educated elite.” In truth, about half of the membership has undergraduate or advanced degrees. Most of its members couldn’t be categorized as populist by most rubrics—they want to live their lives as they privately see fit. Their participation in a civic movement is an ironic last resort. Although members are predominantly white and above age 50, the movement is comprised of an eclectic mix of Ron Paul libertarians, George W. Bush social conservatives, hangovers from the 1992 Perot campaign, and states’ right...
...four friends sitting on four chairs in a New York City apartment trying to achieve their dream—the expectations are set for a show that has cloyingly put a keyboardist, Larry (Will McGarrahan), in the corner of the apartment space to acknowledge as its self-awareness sees fit...
...great-power status is of historic importance and something that will lead to recalibrations of many diplomatic relationships, including that between Washington and Beijing. But as foolish as it would be to ignore this, it's equally foolish to see too much novelty in headline-grabbing stories that fit neatly within established patterns. Chinese officials have expressed outrage before about meetings between foreign leaders and the Dalai Lama. And the Taiwan arms tale follows an even more familiar script. There's nothing new about a U.S. Administration announcing, as Obama's just did, that it's going to sell military...